3D IPTV with No Glasses Required, Soon to Be a Reality

Full 3D television is still a dream, but it's not as "science-fiction" as it once used to be. And that's because the first IPTV service capable of providing full 3D images for consumers without the need for special glasses might arrive as soon as next year, since Spanish company Telefonica has announced that it plans to start testing such a service in Brazil.

Thus, according to IPTV News, the company intends to start testing the new service in Sao Paolo at some point next year, in collaboration with a local pay-TV operator, TVA, which the Spanish telecommunications giant is a shareholder in. The company is considering a release solely for the customers in the Sao Paolo region because they're the only ones connected to a fiber optical network, which has the transmission capacity to deliver 3D IPTV.

Unfortunately, there's also a very serious downside to this otherwise rather interesting initiative, namely the extremely high price of the hardware required for enjoying the full 3D experience with no glasses. Thus, the 3D IPTV service will only work with a specially-designed Philips TV set, which (surprise - surprise!) costs "just" around 18,000 US dollars, which is a prohibitive price point for most people. Nevertheless, there's still hope, according to Renato Secco, director of Philips' Brazilian subsidiary: "Today the technology is aimed more at corporate applications. Inside three or four years it will be much more accessible to the consumer."

It remains to be seen whether this prediction will come true or not, but the perspective is a truly interesting one, albeit we'll probably have to wait at least 10 years or so before this kind of service will become mainstream, especially since fiber optics networks (which represent the backbone of IPTV services) are still rather scarce in many parts of the world.

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